TITLE: The Geometry of Evolutionary Algorithms
SPEAKER: Alberto Moraglio (University of Birmingham)

ABSTRACT:

The various flavors of Evolutionary Algorithms look very
similar when cleared of algorithmically irrelevant differences such as
domain of application and phenotype interpretation.
Representation-independent algorithmic characteristics like the
selection scheme can be freely exchanged between algorithms.
Ultimately, the origin of the differences of the various flavors of
Evolutionary Algorithms is rooted in the solution representation and
relative genetic operators. Are these differences only superficial? Is
there a deeper unity encompassing all Evolutionary Algorithms beyond
the specific representation? Is a general mathematical framework
unifying search operators for all solution representations at all
possible? The talk will introduce a formal, but intuitive, unified
point of view on Evolutionary Algorithms across representations based
on geometric ideas, which provides a possible answer to the above
questions. It also presents the benefits for both theory and practice
brought by this novel perspective.

The geometric view on search operators has a number of interesting
consequences that the talk will overview. These include (i) a
straightforward view on the fitness landscape seen by recombination
operators, (ii) a formal unification of many pre-existing search
operators across representations, (iii) a principled way of designing
crossover operators for new representations, (iv) a principled way of
generalizing search algorithms from continuous to combinatorial
spaces, and (v) the potential for a unified theory of evolutionary
algorithms across representations.

SHORT BIO: Alberto Moraglio is currently a Post-doctoral Research
Fellow in the School of Computer Science at the University of
Birmingham. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of
Essex and a Master (Laurea) in Computer Engineering from the
Polytechnic University of Turin, Italy. Before the current
appointment, he worked as a researcher for Hewlett-Packard Research
Laboratories, as an Assistant Professor for the University of Coimbra,
Portugal, and as post-doctoral research associate affiliated with the
School of Computing and the Centre for Reasoning, University of Kent,
UK.  He has 50+ peer-reviewed publications in journals and conference
proceedings almost exclusively  on the geometric view of evolutionary
algorithms,  which he has developed in his PhD study and post-doctoral
research. His current research interest is on the theoretical
foundations of Evolutionary Computation, and theory-laden design of
search algorithms.